12.13.2007

WordPress Has Become My "Standard" for Blog Websites (thanks in part to Google's Matt Cutts)

One of the most interesting moments at Webmaster World was the endorsement of WordPress by none other than Google's Matt Cutts. For those who may not know, Matt has become the wonderfully laid-back and articulate "voice" of Google at Webmaster World. (photo by Andy Beal used under Creative Commons license.) As detailed in the video interview linked below, Cutts unexpectedly told the PubCon audience that by designing and producing a website in WordPress you, in essence, make it defacto search engine friendly. Especially with the latest version 2.3.

I was very pleased to hear this because I've recently upgraded my golf blog, TheJoyofGolfing.com to WordPress 2.3; and then in the same week, ComBridges has also recently taken over site updates for a client who has a more static page (non-blog) website that was already produced in WordPress. Our company is also currently using it to add an integrated blog to a pre-existing design. These are options that, frankly, I didn't realize existed with a "blogging" platform previously.

Bottom line, I have become increasingly impressed with the WordPress website publishing platform. In addition to a well-thoughtout and feature rich back-end interface, there are options for everything from Google AdSense to static pages that make it more than just a blogging tool. And the real capper is the excellent array of third-party plug-in tools which have been written for the open source WordPress platform. For example, as a search engine marketer, I was thrilled to find out about the "all-in-one seo" plug-in for search engine optimization. I've gotta believe that WordPress is now the state-of-the-art website publishing platform. Personally, I feel empowered by its features, stability and extensibility.

And then today, I got word that Yahoo has written a very impressive plug-in of their own which helps website and blog authors to almost extemporaneously add links and pictures. Yahoo's is kind of a "smart" plug-in that has the capability to suggest links as well as pictures (via Yahoo-owned, Flickr). Click here to watch a video demo of the Yahoo Shortcuts for WordPress.

Below, you will find that interview with Matt Cutts. It includes similar comments about WordPress' search engine friendly "nature" as well as other sage search marketing advise. Note, this endorsement is particularly interesting (as one commenter to this video points out) given that Google owns a competing blog platform (which I am using here), Blogger.

Note, as mentioned, WordPress can also do "flat" pages so it isn't necessarily just a blogging platform. It's really a website development platform or even a lightweight CMS (content management system) as well as a blogging platform, or some combination of the above, depending on your needs.

The only trouble is that now I'm going to have to convert this blog over to WordPress. Fortunately, I don't think that's too tough...

10.05.2007

Search Engine Ranking Factors Clearly Illuminated

For those of us who work (either for ourselves or for clients) is pursuit of organic or natural search engine rankings for targeted keyword phrases, there is a slew of information out there about both the on-page and off-page factors that contribute to these rankings (as I explain in my internet marketing ebook: "EBiz Express: What Every Business Should Know About Internet Marketing").

I'm writing not only to make this shameless plug, but also to share a new resource that I just found that aggregates the opinions of an impressive selection of experts in order to indicate which of the various factors carry the most weight (according to these experts). As something of an expert myself, I found this interactive page to be informative and useful. Thus, I recommend to you: SEOmoz's Google Search Engine Ranking Factors V2

8.27.2007

Free Web Analytics Tools (Link Bait)

Posting some good, free information is a good way to get one of the most valuable parts of search engine optimization, i.e. links TO your website. Thus, the term "link bait." So if Read/WriteWeb was looking for links, I'll bite. Here's a link to a bunch of valuable free web analytics and site analysis tools, all free, all online, all useful:

But I have to say I continue to be most impressed with Google Analytics. The more I use it the more I like it, especially in their recently updated format. Very slick. I find the integration with Google AdWords for the simple analysis of paid vs organic traffic is unparalleled and a useful place to start in helping my clients develop their internet marketing strategies.

6.04.2007

NYTimes Gets Peek Inside Google's Search Systems

Perhaps amongst the most closely guarded secrets in the entire tech industry are the algorithms or formulas that include "signals" and "classifiers" that determine a website's position on Google's SERP's (search engine results pages).

3.08.2007

Great Basic Search Marketing Tips

Here are some very important pointers that are also some of the most common mistakes made by websites who want to be found by the search engines, and especially for those who want their websites to rank well for targeted keyword phrases. (This is also known as search engine optimization, SEO or SEM.)